Sphingomonas piscinae sp. nov., isolated from a fish pond

A bacterial strain designated LYH-20T was isolated from a fish pond in Taiwan and characterized using a polyphasic taxonomy approach. Cells of strain LYH-20T were aerobic, Gram-stain-negative, non-motile, poly-β-hydroxybutyrate containing, showing straight and rod shaped that were covered by large capsules and formed yellow-coloured colonies. Growth occurred at 15-40 °C (optimum, 30 °C), with 0-1.0 % NaCl (optimum, 0-0.1 %) and at pH 5.0-9.0 (optimum, pH 8.0-9.0). According to a phylogenetic tree based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain LYH-20T belonged to the genus Sphingomonas and clustered with Sphingomonas fonticola TNR-2T, with which it shared the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity (97.5 %). The major fatty acids (>10 %) of strain LYH-20T were C18 : 1ω7c and C16 : 0. The DNA G+C content was 67.5 mol%. The sole isoprenoid quinone was Q-10. The polyamines detected were spermidine, putrescine and homospermidine. The polar lipid profile consisted of a mixture of sphingoglycolipid, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, diphosphatidylglycerol and three uncharacterized phospholipids. The DNA-DNA hybridization value for strain LYH-20T with Sphingomonas fonticola TNR-2T was less than 35 %. Phenotypic characteristics of the novel strain also differed from those of the closest related species of the genus Sphingomonas. On the basis of the genotypic, chemotaxonomic and phenotypic data, strain LYH-20T represents a novel species in the genus Sphingomonas, for which the name Sphingomonas piscinae sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is LYH-20T (=BCRC 80911T=LMG 29002T=KCTC 42741T).